


Stumble

by Cumberbatch Critter (ivelostmyspectacles)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Depression, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Medication, Withdrawal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 11:26:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13075893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivelostmyspectacles/pseuds/Cumberbatch%20Critter
Summary: Ignis will be the one to hold him together when mind and body try to tear him apart.





	Stumble

There was something wrong.

Ignis had realized it earlier on the morning, when Noct had been even less inclined out of their tent than usual. But he had let it pass; mornings were never good for Noctis, and likely never were going to be and their journey, as of late, had kept them even more busy than usual. If Noctis was tired, it was with good reason. Ignis, thinking himself ever vigilant, had made certain that the radio was down and the two raucous heathens in the backseat received a reprimanding look when they got too loud.

Noctis had dozed off. By afternoon, Ignis was suspecting it was less pure exhaustion than it was something else, but it was always difficult to get answers out of Noct and he wanted to ask when they were alone. If he was ill, they could stop. Town was a forlorn hope, immediately, but they could have made camp or, at the very least, given the prince a cold pill.

But it didn’t precisely seem to be that, either, watching Noctis pluck at a thread on his jacket like he didn’t even notice he was doing it. He was staring off into middle distance, and even jumped when Ignis walked up to offer him his lunch. Quillhorn soup, in case Noct was coming down with something, and Ignis had frowned when the prince ended up taking only a few bites and setting it aside.

Ignis had tried to chastise him. Noct had said he didn’t feel like eating, which meant it was a worthless battle, but perhaps what had been most surprising had been Noctis _apologizing_ for it and then slinking back to the car on pretense of looking for his phone.

That had unsettled him, a little more. That tone of voice. Ignis had watched him go, frowning, until Prompto overturned his can of coffee sitting next to the chair, and he had been sufficiently distracted.

Fast forward to the middle of the night, the vague press of something being even more _not right_ as Ignis woke for no discernible reason other than a gut feeling. They hadn’t been on this journey for long, but long enough to fall into a routine that Ignis was content with– one he expected. To wake in the middle of the night and find the prince missing from beneath the blankets was worrisome; to find him missing from the blankets after a full day of odd behavior was borderline alarming.

He waited in case the prince had only stepped out for a moment, staring at the top of the tent and straining to hear. When he didn’t return, Ignis put on his glasses and quietly slipped out of the tent.

Noctis was sitting at the doused remains of the fire, knees drawn up to his chest. He wouldn’t put it past him to sleep sitting up, but there was too much tension in his shoulders for him to be. Ignis stopped next to him; Noct flinched and nearly pitched himself forward.

“Specs… _jeez…”_

“Apologies.” Ignis frowned. That was also unlike him. He wasn’t so easy to startle, even less so to get a reaction out of him for it. Ignis hesitated for a moment, and then folded himself down to the ground next to the prince.

It was difficult to see, but he thought, squinting through the murky darkness, that the prince looked too pale, and his eyes were too bright.

“Are you alright, Noct?”

“Yeah.” He tightened his hold around his knees, and dropped his chin onto them. “… no.”

He reached out a hand to press against Noctis’s forehead, years of instinct and a poorly prince when he had been younger prompting him directly into caretaking mode. “You’ve been sick since this morning.” It wasn’t a question. He tried to keep his voice as non-confrontational as possible, but he could hear the inklings of a lecture already in his own voice. He tried to dismiss it. There would be time for that, later, when the prince wasn’t ill. “Did you take anything?”

“No, I’m not…” He’d gone even more tense, like he didn’t know if he wanted to pull away or press into Ignis’s hand. “I…” The former won out. He turned his face away, and his arms tightened around his knees. “I ran out of meds,” he mumbled.

Ignis’s hand stilled, still hovering from where Noct turned his face away. Oh. _Oh._ He should have known. He hadn’t been vigilant at all. “Noct.” He folded his hands back in his lap. “Why didn’t you say?”

“We’re nowhere near town. And it was my stupid mistake… I should have _remembered…_ ”

“No,” Ignis interrupted. He wouldn’t let him go down that road. To his knowledge, Noct had never once forgotten his medication before this. They had been surrounded by city life, and a pharmacy on every street corner. Not trapped in grottos looking for royal arms for multiple days on end. “The circumstances have been extenuating. But we could have kept going,” he added gently. “We didn’t need to stop, gotten you back to town sooner.”

Noct was already shaking his head. “You were driving all day and I… can’t,” he said pathetically, fingers brushing a temple. “We _needed_ to stop.”

“Not at the expense of your suffering.”

“I can handle suffering for one day,” he mumbled. “I think. I’m just… fluish and… over emotional and can’t sleep even though I’m _so tired_ –”

His voice cracked, and Ignis smoothed a hand over his shoulder. “You’re doing fine, Noct.” Fluish and over emotional and going through withdrawal that even Ignis hadn’t put two and two together on. He should have noticed sooner. “We’ll get you to town in the morning. What can I do in the meantime?”

He was at a loss. Noct never had missed his medication while Ignis had known him; he remembered vividly the days before the pills, but not after, not a missed dose and the side effects from it.

“Dunno, just… need to be back on it,” Noctis muttered. “It’ll go away, just need to get through it for now. Can you…” He swallowed, and then blew out a shaky breath. “Can you just… stay here. For a little while? I feel… weird.”

There was no hesitation. “Of course.”

“My head just has the worst feeling,” Noctis mumbled, and then unfolded his arms from his legs. “Can I just…” He hesitated, and then shifted over, carefully edging into Ignis’s personal space. “… maybe…”

“Of course,” Ignis repeated, a little more firmly. He had already slipped his arm around the prince to hold him to his side before he wondered if that may have been a mistake. “Is this okay?”

Noctis nodded slightly. “Yeah… I think… don’t really know what I want right now.” But he pressed into Ignis’s warmth, and closed his eyes, body heaving with a sigh that made Ignis want to stroke his fingers along his hair and persuade him that he would get through this. He did not, partially because Noct already seemed to grasp that fact, but mostly because Noctis didn’t deserve the platitude. Ignis couldn’t begin to understand what he was going through. He had no standing to say he would be okay, or that it would get better, even with his medication. It wasn’t his right to say that. All he could do was be there.

It felt horribly underwhelming, but Noct, trembling minutely against his side, didn't seem to care.

“Let me know if you need space,” he said instead, and Noct nodded again.

“Thanks, Iggy…”

“Any time,” he promised.

**Author's Note:**

> give me self-diagnosed/undiagnosed Noct with depression but also give me Noct who's on antidepressants and goes to therapy and of course all three of the boys know but Ignis was the first one Noct told
> 
> basically give me any scenario that includes love and support and doesn't involve the word 'lazy' I know I wrote this in another a/n on another story but god this will never stop being important to me alright


End file.
